9 DAYS OVERDUE AND COUNTING
03/10/11 22:30
First of all, let me just say you’d never know my wife is 9 days overdue. She’s still cheerful, fun and looks hot! We went to a friend’s party on Friday night and stayed until 1am. It wasn’t my wife who wanted to go home, it was me. Then Sunday, we decided to have an impromptu party for some of the neighbors and smoked Texas ribs for 12 people. Again, my wife had a lovely time from beginning to end.
Because we’re past our due date, the doctor wants to see us every couple of days to make sure the lunar module (the placenta) is still in good shape. If the amniotic fluid is still clean and healthy, then the baby is in good shape. If the amniotic fluid begins to disappear or the baby’s not eating any longer, then it’s time to get the baby out.
So Monday morning, we headed off to the hospital. Val had a new sonogram done and I was really looking forward to seeing what the baby looks like now that it’s fully grown in there. When the nurse rubbed the jelly stuff on my wife’s stomach and started taking pictures, I wanted to ask for a new technician. This woman was looking at parts and writing down notes and saying, “good” and “that’s great” and I’m thinking, “no it’s not! I can’t see anything. Where’s the baby? Where’s the legs and feet and hands and all that?” All i could see was blobs. I finally couldn’t help myself but ask why she couldn’t take any better pictures than that. She said the baby was big now and that it’s all squashed up in there. The camera doesn’t have a wide angle lens. All we could see was what was right in front of us. Well, I was happy that Bean was big and strong but disappointed I couldn’t get a glimpse of what he would come out looking like in the next couple of days. The doc was able to confirm it was a boy. She pointed to his testicles but I might as well have been at the MOMA in NYC because it was all abstract to me. I’ve never been that close to a set of testicles and don’t ever hope to be.
The doctor kept talking about inducing labor which means to use drugs to relax the muscles so the contractions will start but as long as my wife is happy, we’re not going to rush anything. Bean’s going to come out when he’s ready and we don’t want to rush the little guy.